All right, let's open our Bibles
to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46.1 says, Bel boweth
down, Nebo stoopeth. Bel and Nebo were two idol gods
in Babylon. Babylon, you know, stands for
falsehood. It stands for false religion. And these were two idols of Babylon,
Baal and Nebo. And God sent Cyrus into Babylon
because that's where his children were in captivity in Babylon. And he raised up Cyrus and sent
him in there to deliver his children out of that captivity. Cyrus
is a picture of Christ. That's what Christ came to deliver
his children out of Babylonian captivity, out of the captivity
of sin and our falsehood in Babylon. And whenever Cyrus came there,
he hauled their idols away on wagons. They were just big statues. You remember whenever they invaded
Iraq, and when Iraq was finally taken down, you remember that
big statue of Saddam Hussein, and it was all gold-plated, and
they come in there and took that statue down and danced on top
of it and all that. That's all Bell and Nebo were,
were just big statues, big idol God, covered over in brass and
silver, whatever, and gold. And Cyrus took them away because
they had gold and silver on them. He came in and just chopped them
up. And so he says here to us, Bell boweth down, Nebo stoopeth.
And you know, an idol, let me say this to you, an idol is anything
that we put our confidence in. It doesn't have to be a statue.
It doesn't have to be carved out, made into an image. It's
anything we put confidence in other than Christ. That's an
idol. It might be only in the imagination
of the heart. The Lord said in Ezekiel 14.3,
He said, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their
heart. put the stumbling block of their
iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired at all by
them? An idol can be a religious experience
that you keep looking back to and thinking, well, I did that
a long time ago and keep holding on to that. An idol can be a
religious service or things that you do that you We come here
to worship God. We come here to hear the Gospel
preached in truth and simplicity from the Scriptures. But a person
can do this very thing in this place, thinking that this act
of coming here is going to merit them some kind of something with
God. And they make this very thing
we're doing right here an idol. Or it can be some kind of service.
that you do for others or what have you. It can be honors, things
of this world, honors in this world. It can be position, title,
possessions, things like that. Anything that a sinner trusts
in rather than Christ, that's idolatry. That's idolatry. Now
he says here that these stooped down, they bowed. Cyrus put them
on these carts and they hauled them away. Verse one says, their
idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle. Your carriages,
they had some kind of wagons of some sort. They were heavy
loaded. They were just filled with these
broken pieces of these idols. And they are a burden to the
weary beast. It says they stoop, they bow
down together. Both these idols fell down. They
couldn't deliver the burden. These idols couldn't deliver
the burden of these Babylonian rulers and people in Babylon
who worshipped them. They couldn't deliver them from
Cyrus when he came in and took them. But themselves are going
into captivity. The idols themselves were taken
captive, just like the people were. They were taken away. Now
can you picture those weary horses? You picture them and those oxen,
whatever they used to haul those wagons. You picture them with
all those heavy, that heavy load on those carriages. And they're
pulling those broken statues and those horses, oxen, the weary
beasts described here as just being bowed down and being made
weary to try to carry that heavy load and carry that heavy burden
of those idols. Christ bears the burden of His
people. Our God carries the burden of His people, but anything other
than Christ, it won't deliver you from the burden, but it'll
make a heavier burden on you. It won't carry you, you'll have
to carry it. Look over to Isaiah 2 and look
at verse 20. Let's read up here verse 17. You can take the idols just out
of the picture and just put man in the picture, man who makes
it, man who imagines these idols and crafts them out. He says,
verse 17, the loftiness of man shall be bowed down. Just like
those statues were toppled down. The loftiness of man shall be
bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. in the day when
Christ comes, and the idols he shall utterly abolish, just like
when Cyrus went in there and just abolished those idols. And they shall go into the holes
of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for fear of the
Lord, talking about the people, and for the glory of his majesty.
when he arises to shake terribly the earth, in that day a man
shall cast his isles of silver and his isles of gold, which
they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and
to the bats." They just won't be any good. They won't save,
they won't help you at all. It says, and they'll do this
to run and hide in the rocks for fear of the Lord and for
the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake terribly the
earth. Here's the conclusion of that matter. Cease ye from
man whose breath's in his nostrils for hence he to be accounted
of. That's the picture we're getting here. It's man that makes
the images. Man's gonna be brought down.
There's something, thinking about these idols, there's something
that's going on today in our present day that we've been warned
about by the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been warned about by all
the apostles. And the Lord said this. He said
that the falsehood would get to a point that it would be that
if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect. If it
were possible, it would deceive the very elect. The church at
Rome, this is what most people jump on Catholicism and, you
know, but that's obvious. That's an obvious form of idolatry. With all their statues, with
all their idols and all that, that's as obvious as it can be.
Within the past 50 years, even longer than that really, but
I just remember in the past 20 or 30 years, I remember folks
who would renounce Catholicism as idolatry. Preachers standing
up and saying, God has no hands but your hands and no feet but
your feet. God's done all he can do, now
won't you let God do something for you? That's an idol just
as much as if you took a statue and covered it over in gold.
Look at Isaiah 46, 7. This is the description of an
idol. When a preacher stands up, he may not have images, he
may not have anything for you to bow down to and worship outwardly. But when he tells you God has
no hands but your hands, listen to this description of an idol.
Verse 7, they bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, they
set him in his place, and he standeth. From his place shall
he not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. That's
a description of a God who has no hands but your hands. He can't
do anything but what you let him do. And that is pretty obvious
idolatry, too, to a believer. That's just as obvious as Catholicism. But it seems more in our day
that the old harlot isn't dressing like a harlot. She's dressing
like truth. Calvinism, the doctrine of grace
is more popular in our day than it has ever been. She's trying
to pass herself off as truth. But let me say this to you. It's
a dead letter understanding. Whenever folks are content to
sit and hear preaching that tramples the blood of Christ underfoot,
when men are content that the activities of a church are used
to exalt or exalted to attract men, just so long as they claim
to hold to this creed or this confession from the past, and
it may be a solid creed, a solid confession, or just so they can
check off a statement of faith like a Catholic counts rosary
beads. They have said and listened to
preaching that just makes Christ's blood to have really accomplished
nothing unless the sinner allows it to have done something. They'll
preach a message that doesn't say Christ is the sanctifier.
That man's got to sanctify himself. Man's got to make himself holy. These things are, that's just
as much idol worship, but it's so cunning and it's so crafty
and it's idolatry. It's idolatry. And the master
said, if it's possible, they would deceive the very elect.
That ought to tell us to be very careful, beware. And as Paul
said, it's no marvel. Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.
They're not coming as the ministers of unrighteousness. They're coming pretending to
be ministers of righteousness. But here's the word of the Lord.
Just like whenever Israel was in Babylon, and they had all
these idols around them. They've been in Babylon for a
long time. They've been in Babylon for 70 years. And it gets to
where things get normal. This becomes the norm all around
you. And you think, well, this is
just how it is. But this is what the Lord said.
Verse 3, He says, Harken unto Me, Harken unto Me. Harken unto
Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
which are born by Me from the belly, which are carried from
the womb. and even to your old age I am
he, and even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made and
I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you. Now this
is the Lord's Word to His spiritual Israel right here today, just
like it was to His spiritual Israel in Isaiah's day. There
was an Israel in the midst of what appeared to be Israel in
that day. And there is a true spiritual Israel in the midst
of what appears to be Christianity in our day. There's a true Israel,
a true spiritual children. This is to that remnant according
to the election of grace. This is who He's speaking to.
And he says, hearken unto me. He tells you and I who believe
the sovereign, unchangeable, unchanging God of heaven and
earth. He says to us, hearken to me. That's the only way a
sinner is going to hear this. The only way a sinner is going
to believe Him. The only way we're going to do this is if
He speaks this word to us personally in our heart, effectually, it
makes us to hearken to Him. It makes us truly hear Him. This
is God speaking. He says, hear God. Hear the Lord
God. Hear your Lord God. There are
so many voices that we hearken to, that we ought not listen
to, that we heed, that we ought not heed. And I'm talking about
you and me who believe the Lord, who trust the Lord. Our adversary,
the devil, is the accuser of the brethren. And he would have
us to hear him accuse our brethren. He would have him hear us accuse
one another, to accuse us, and to turn us, and deceive us, and
beguile us, just like he did Eve in the garden. Very subtle,
very crafty. There's the old man of our flesh.
We have a tendency, you and I, to just... We get to thinking
about some sin of ours. We get to think about something
in the past that is just... that horrible thing that we wish
we never done or thought or said or whatever. And we get to thinking
about something in present day. And we get to thinking, I couldn't
be a child of God. How can I be a child of God?
And then worse than that, we start trying to to find confidence
in ourselves, and if we do find confidence in ourselves, it's
worse than the other. Then we're just self-righteous
in ourselves. The man who has faith, who can
trust God, whether he feels like he's a child of God, And even
when he doesn't feel like he's a child of God, that's faith.
Faith that just, I'm trusting God. Whether I feel like I'm
a child of His or I don't feel like I'm a child of His, whether
I see something in me or don't see something in me, I want to
see Him. I just want to trust Him. We
have a lot of trials that we come into, and we get old, and
we get older, and our bodies are shipwrecks. These things have voices, and
we hearken to these things. We hear these things that discourage
us. and that would turn us from trusting
God and resting in Him and having comfort in Him and having peace
in Him and walking after Him. But the Lord says to us, don't
hearken to those things. Don't hearken to those voices.
He says, hearken to me. He says, you're my child. You're
born by me from the belly. I made you, He said. You didn't
make me. They made their idols. He said, you didn't make me.
I made you. He says, I carried you from the
womb. They had to carry their idols. He said, but God says, you haven't
carried me. I've carried you from the womb.
He says, and even to your old age, I am he. And even the gray
hairs will I carry you. You know, when your children
were younger, you picked them up and you carried
them around. and you took care of them, can
you still pick them up and carry them around and take care of
them? Can you pick up your children now just like you did when they
were infants and carry them around and take care of them, protect
them? We lose that ability, don't we? He says, I'm the same God
who carried you from the womb and I'll carry you to your gray
hairs. That's what He said. I am He.
He's telling us that he's God who changes not. He's God who's
unchangeable. He said, I carried you from the
womb. And he said, and even to your old age, I'm he. And even
to gray hairs, I'll carry you. I went home. I was so excited
to go home. And I was looking forward to
it for weeks. And I wanted to go home. And
I wanted to have all these plans. I was going to take Melinda and
the kids around. and relive the glory days and
show them all the stuff and all the things that I, you know,
I always tell them these stories about, you know, and all. And
we drove around looking for those things and I couldn't find any
of those things. They're gone. Everything had
changed. I took them out to show them
a log cabin that me and some friends of mine built when we
were kids. And it was there. It was there five years ago.
And I took them out there to show them. And not only is the
cabin not there now, the woods that the cabin was in are not
there now. It's all gone. It's just gone.
Everything changes, but God doesn't change. Our God does not change. Just like He was the first moment
He called His child of grace, He's the same. He's the same
God. When we saw His glory in the
face of Christ, and you rejoiced, and you were excited, and you
thought it was just so new and so... Well, we get to where we
hear things like what I tried to preach to you this morning.
And sometimes I feel like we look at those scriptures and
we've just looked at them so much that we become dull to looking
at them. And yet, He's the same God. He
hadn't changed. He's just that new as He was
and just that full of life and everlasting glory that we saw
in Him from the beginning. We change. He doesn't change.
He doesn't change. At times, you know, our hearts
will be all ablaze. We'll be full of zeal. And other
times, we're just smoking flax. Other times, we're just bruised
reeds. That's all we are. You know, That doesn't change
him though. We do that, but he doesn't change. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. That's why we're not consumed
is because God doesn't change. The grace that called us, the
grace that chose us, the grace that called us, the grace that
quickened us, it's grace. It's not changing. It doesn't
change. And so there's no change in it.
Your children waver. Our children will waver, you
know. And they'll do something that tries us. They try our patients,
and there's no doubt about it. But we don't stop loving them
when they do it. Well, if you then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
shall your Father which is in heaven, he's the unchanging God? Same in His power, same in His
protection, same in His promises, same in His truth, same in His
faithfulness to His people. He promised us. That gives us
two immutable things. We have the promise of God and
God who cannot lie. It's impossible for Him to lie.
So that we have strong consolation. We fled to Him for refuge. Look back up at verse 45. He said, verse 19, I've not spoken
in secret in a dark place of the earth. I said unto the seed
of Jacob, I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in
vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness.
I declare things that are right. He didn't promise us he'd be
our refuge, and us flee to him for refuge. And then somewhere
along the way, he decide, I'm not going to be your refuge.
He's our refuge. He's the refuge of His people.
And our refuge is Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday, today, and
forever. He changes not. He changes not. Here's the second word He tells
us here in verse 4. First He says there, I'm He. I change not. I'm carrying you.
I change not. Then He says this. He says, I
have made you. I have made you. He said, you're
born by me from the belly, you're carried by me from the womb.
Now there's some of you sitting here right now that don't trust
the Lord. You don't trust Him. You don't
believe Him. The long and short of it is you don't believe God.
You don't believe His Word. Well, your confidence, whatever
it is that you hope end. Maybe it's that, you know, I
don't think God's all that strict. I think my good's going to outweigh
my bad. Or you think, you know, one day
down the road maybe I'll give that some thought. You've got
some kind of confidence right now that makes you think it's
not that urgent, right this moment, for me to flee into the arms
of Christ. You know what urgency is? You know when, you know,
when did you see those tornadoes that hit Dallas this week? You
see those 18 wheelers in that parking lot and they just flying
through the air. They just look like pieces of
paper flying through the air. 18 wheelers, big, big semi truck. You know what urgency is, is
when you look up and you see that finger of God just coming
along like that. You know then I have a need,
I have a urgent need to flee for refuge. The only reason we
don't see that need right now, the only reason we don't flee
to that refuge right now is we don't see that need. You don't
see it, you don't think you have it. But that confidence that
you have that's keeping you from him, that confidence is going,
you made that confidence. You bore that confidence, and
you have to bear it. You have to carry it. You have
to keep it up within you. You have to keep it alive and
keep it convincing you that you're okay. But sooner or later, you're
going to get old. And sooner or later, you're going
to die. And when you die, when you go
to the dust, that confidence is going to die. It's going to
die with you. And then you have to stand before God without an
advocate, without a mediator between you and God. But even
to you who have not yet trusted him, you were born of him, naturally
speaking. He's the one that made you come
forth from your mother's womb. He's the one that's given you
the light of, if you've got any sense, he gave you the light
you have. Naturally speaking. And He says, hearken to Me. He
says, hearken to Me. Now to you who have been born
of Him by His Spirit, this is true of us. Israel is the picture
here. He's talking to Israel here.
He's saying, I bore you from the womb. You know, before Israel
ever came about, before there was such a thing as a nation
of Israel, in the purpose of God, He told Abraham, that's
who we looked at at this point, He told him, from your seed,
from your son, a son that Abraham didn't even have yet. He said
from him is coming a great nation. And you're going to be the father
of many nations. Israel was already conceived in the mind and purpose
of God before they even came forth. That's true of every child
of God. Before we ever had a being, a
substance, we were already created, already born according to His
purpose by His divine electing grace. Look over at Psalm 139. Psalm 139. The Scriptures tell
us in Ephesians 4 that it said He descended into the lowest
parts of the earth. Christ descended to the lowest
parts of the earth. We're told what that is here
in Psalm 139 verse 15. My substance was not hid from
thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the
lowest part of the earth. You know what he's talking about?
He's talking about the womb, when Christ was formed in the
womb of the Virgin in Mary. He said, Thine eyes did see my
substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them. All of his members, just as real
as all of his fingers and his toes and his hands and everything
was written by God, so that there was a body formed, that he would
come forth with that body. So every member of his elect
body was formed in Christ, when as yet they weren't even seen
or known by anybody. They were already made in Christ. Even when he was in the womb
of the virgin, all his elect children were already formed,
and God already knew them, and he already saw them. Through
all the days of our rebellion, look over at Isaiah 63, through
all the days of our rebellion, We're born into this world and
we didn't know God. We didn't want to know God. We
didn't have any desire to know God. And went for however many
years we went in rebellion against Him. He protected us that whole
time. He carried us that whole time.
He said He suffered Israel's manners in the wilderness. He
suffered ours. He was long-suffering to us. He wasn't willing that
we should perish before He brought us to hear this Gospel and give
us repentance and faith to believe Him. Look at Isaiah 63, 9. He
said, in all their affliction, He was afflicted, and the angel
of His presence saved them. In His love and in His pity,
He redeemed them, and He bared them and He carried them all
the days of old. He brought Israel out and He
carried them the whole time. That's what He did for you and
I. Exactly what He did for each of His elect children. Look over
at Deuteronomy 1, look at verse 31. He tells them this, He says,
The Lord your God will go before you and He shall fight for you
according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your
eyes. Verse 31, And in the wilderness where thou hast seen how that
the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bare his son. in all
the way that you went until you came into this place." He carried
them the whole way. And that's what the Lord's telling
us. He said, I've made you. I made you from the womb. From
the womb in the beginning when there was only God. From the
womb when Christ came, you were formed in Him. You were in Him
when He came forth. from your mother's womb when
you came forth, He carried you, He bore you through all your
rebellion, and He crossed your path with the Gospel. And He
said, and then I gave you birth. I made you. I created you anew.
I gave you a new heart. I gave you a new nature. I made
you in righteousness and true holiness. He said, I made you
partakers of Christ. He said, I've formed you for
Myself, and you're going to show forth My praise. That's what
He said. Now, we can't undo what God's
done. Is something you and I are going
to do going to undo what God's done? That's just the wonderful
thing about spiritual life. We can take physical life. We can't take spiritual life.
You can't do away with spiritual life. You can't undo what God
has made. If He's made us to partake of
spiritual things, we can't undo that. We just can't. He's going
to keep His children. If He's begun a good work in
you, He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He said,
I made you. Look at the third thing here,
back in our text, Isaiah 46. He said, I made you. It's in
the past tense. He said, and I will bear, even
I will carry you. Whatever He gives you life. Look
over at Isaiah 53. He said, I've made you. He said,
and I will bear you and I will carry you. When He gives you
this eyes to see and this faith to see Him, the way that you
know that He's going, He will bear you and He will carry you.
Through every fire, through every fiery trial, through every flood
of trial, through everything, the way you know He's going to
carry you through everything is because He makes us by faith
to behold this right here. These are the same two words
translated here, Isaiah 53, 4. Surely, speaking of Christ, surely
He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He took our sins upon himself. He bore it and he carried it. That's what the same words, we
esteem them stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. That's
what really and truly a man sitting here right now who doesn't know
God, doesn't believe on God. You know what we think in our
hearts when you hear this? I can remember thinking something
like that. I can remember thinking, I don't know who that Jesus was,
but Probably what he endured on the cross, he had coming to
him. Probably what he endured on the cross was just like any
other man, and he just had it coming. I remember thinking that
about him. And that's what it said. We esteemed
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. We thought everything
he got, he got because he deserved it. He got because it was his
doing. But he was wounded for our transgressions. That's what
we saw this morning. He carried our sin. He bore our
sin. That's what He makes us to see.
He was bruised for our iniquities to chastise when our peace of
our peace was upon Him. And you know what the good news
of that is? With His stripes we're healed. We're healed. You
and I, go back over there at verse 4 and just look at this.
He says there in verse 4, He says, even to your old age, I'm
the God that changes not. And he says, even to your gray
hairs, I'll carry you. Now, there's gonna come a time
when the older you get, and the more you start looking at your
body, the more you start seeing wrinkles, and the more you start
seeing it's not like it was. If you don't believe me that
when we say you'll change, just wait, you will change. Everything
will change. You'll start trying to adjust
the lighting in your mirror just so it doesn't shine on you in
certain ways, you know. You'll be able to see wrinkles
and all those things. And if you get a disease or something
like that, and disease begins to make your body deteriorate,
begins to make your body wither away and wilt away to where you
look in the mirror and you can't see any life. You just see something that's
a skeleton. It's just a frame there. A big change is taking
place there, but you know what the fact remains? If you're a
believer, if God's called you by His grace, you're still healed. You're still every bit well.
Completely, thoroughly well. You see, God's put us in these
bodies, and He's left us in these bodies to make us not to trust
ourselves, but to trust Him. To make us not to look to anything
that we do, that we think is going to commend us, not to look
to anything that we have done that we think is going to change
his thoughts of us. so that we thoroughly, completely
stop looking to ourselves, to save ourselves, so that we look
to Him only. And one of those ways he does
it is, just if you live a good life, and a righteous life, and
you live godly and honorably before Him, you're still gonna
watch your body. wither to the dust it is. You're
gonna watch your body wither away as the, like the grass that
it is. You're gonna watch your body
like a shipwreck it is, so that you know, I'm glad God saved
me from myself. I'm glad he turned me from trusting
myself to trust his son, because if I was trusting in me, it's
just, it would be withering away every day and go into nothing. Yet in all of that, His people
are healed. That doesn't change. He said,
I'm carrying you from here on out. I've borne you. I've made
you. I'm carrying you. With my stripes,
you're healed. And that's done. It's accomplished. You're healed. I like this in
Deuteronomy 33, 27. It says, the eternal God. You know that's going to end
up good. It already starts good. The eternal God is thy refuge. And underneath are the everlasting
arms. And he shall thrust out the enemy
from before thee and shall say, destroy. There'll come a time
when you might not even be able to talk. There'll come a time
when you might not be able to say anything. There'll come a
time when you won't be able to trust these arms. There'll come
a time when everything about you you'll see is mortal. but
he's the eternal God, and underneath are the everlasting arms, and
he'll say to the enemy, destroy. Every poor sinner who's without
Christ, you don't have this. You don't have this. You've got
to bear the guilt of sin yourself. You've got to bear the weight
and burden of the law yourself. You've got to carry all your
idols yourself. You've got to keep up all the
facades yourself. Eventually, eventually. You can't
keep slapping a coat of paint on the same old house. Eventually,
it's got to be replaced. Eventually, it's going to rot
away. Eventually, it's just not going to do to keep on trying.
You're going to get too old to keep painting it. You're going
to get too old to try to keep that sepulcher looking whitewashed
on the outside when inside it's full of dead men's bones. Believe
on Christ. Trust Christ. He takes that burden. Look at Matthew 11. Matthew 11. He says, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, weary, just a weary beast laden
under that weight. He says, come to me, and I will
give you rest. I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart,
and you'll find rest for your souls. rest for your soul. He'll feed his flock like a shepherd.
He'll gather the lambs with his arm. He'll carry them in his
bosom and shall gently lead those that are with you." Isn't that
good news? Isn't that just... I don't know why anybody wouldn't
come to Him. It's nothing but good news when you come to Him.
He keeps and nourishes His babes with the sincere milk of the
Word. He said, as a mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and you'll
be comforted in Jerusalem. You see how much, how good this
is? So much better than trusting
in something we make and some confidence we've established
and have to carry around and try to keep up and try to keep
ourselves excited about it and looking to it and hoping in it
and all that. Look at verse 21, Isaiah 45,
21. He says, there's no God else besides me, a just God and a
Savior. There's none beside me. Look
unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth are
from God. There's none else. He said down in our text there
at verse 5, and we're not going that far, but he says, to whom
will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we
may be like? There's no other God in any system
of religion, in any falsehood anywhere, whether it goes in
the name of Christianity, or whether it goes in the name of
Buddha, or a rock, or a stump, or a lizard, or a bat, or whatever
it is. There's no other God that's ever
been imagined in the deceitful, wicked heart of a man that's
like this God. He doesn't require his people
to do anything. He comes to his people and says,
come to me as guilty as you are, as sinful as you are, as wretched
as you are, as black and uncomely as you are, as destitute as you
are, as bankrupt as you are. Come to me and buy money without
price. Come to me and feast yourself
and delight yourself in fatness. He says, That's what he requires. There's no there's no other religion
anywhere that requires you to come to God Come and don't do
anything come and trust everything into his hand none other none
other All right. Let's look at this one last thing
now back at Isaiah 46 3 This is what he said He says hearken
unto me He says, you're born by me from the belly. You're
carried from the womb. He said, I don't change. Even
to your old age, I'm he. Even the gray hairs will I carry
you. I've made you. He said, I'll bear you. Even
I will carry you. And here's the last thing, and
I will deliver you. You see, back up there in verse
2, it says, those idols, they couldn't deliver the burden,
but they themselves went into captivity. He's showing us how
different he is from any of man's imaginary gods. He said, but
I'll deliver you. I will deliver you. I'll deliver
you. Look over at Colossians 1.13.
I'm going to show you two scriptures. Colossians 1.13. Now here's this first deliverance.
This is what we have, brethren, right here. You who believe God
have this already, right now. This is what we thank our Father,
God our Father, for. He's made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Here's what He's done,
verse 13. He hath delivered us. That means
it's already done. He hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. In His Son, we have redemption
through His blood. We have the forgiveness of sins
right now. We have it. We've been delivered
from the power of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.
Look at Revelation 21. Revelation 21. Paul said, You know, we like him. We're
like Paul. We go through, we go through these trials and we
get in these situations and we start thinking, we start thinking
that We have the sentence of death in ourselves. We can't
deliver ourselves. We see it sometimes, just how real it is.
It came to Paul at Asia. He was pressed out of measure.
He said, we had that sentence of death in ourselves so that
we wouldn't trust in ourselves, to teach us not to trust in ourselves. But in God who delivered us,
he said, and who hath delivered us, and who we trust shall deliver
us. He delivered us from so great
a death and we trust He will yet deliver us. What does He
deliver you from? What's He going to deliver us
from? He's delivered us, He promises to deliver us out of all affliction,
out of all temptations. He will not suffer one of his
children. Listen to that. Are you going
through a severe trial? This is what God, your heavenly
Father, promises you. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which you are able. But when he gives the
trial, he's going to provide the way to escape. And that way
is Christ, and he delivers you out of the affliction, out of
it. He'll deliver you out of the hand of every enemy. He'll
deliver you from this body of sin and this body of death. He'll
deliver you from death eternal. We're not going to die. We're
going to go be with Him. He's going to deliver us from
the wrath to come. Therefore now no condemnation of them are
in Christ. He's going to deliver us at last
from the grave and from all the corruption in our bodies. And
He's going to deliver us to something. Revelation 21. And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
And God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Will give unto him
that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely It's free, you know Somebody I Heard this a long
time ago. Somebody said There was no preacher
and he was at a he was at a festival and somebody said He was sitting
there and he was there was a somebody next to him selling honey And
he said, my goal is to try to get them up to my price. And
the preacher said, and my goal is try to get them down to God's.
It's free. It's free. It does not cost anything. This is what the Psalmist said.
My flesh and my heart faileth. That's what we are. We're flesh
and we're heart. And both of them fail. Both of
them are going to fail. He said, but God's the strength
of my heart and He's my portion forever. And He said in another
place, this God is our God. He's our God forever and ever. And He will be our guide even
unto death. So we don't have anything to
worry about. You know, we just don't have anything to worry
about. That's the unchanging God. Now, when next time you hear
that voice of reason and that voice of your flesh and that
voice of trial and that voice of these shipwrecked bodies and
the voice of temptation and the voice of peers and all these
other voices, God says, ignore them all. Harken unto me harken
unto me